Listening to GA's post match interview, he seemed indicate that MK away next Saturday was very much priority, so I suspect the starting XI will be rotated. Not really worth risking key players like McCleary in a game like this when it's possible he'd have a negligible impact anyway. Best to save him for the more important matches to come.
It’s a real problem. Rotate in a lot of kids and get slaughtered it damages them. Play key first team players and risk a crap result v They Who Shall Not Be Named.
McCarthy in, Wheeler in, Gape maybe, plus the subs who came on yesterday
Out of interest, what do people think of the League Cup as a competition in general? I'm writing a piece on how to improve/revamp it at the moment. Personally I think it's on its last legs without a few changes.
I'd like to see Bayo and Bloomfield start on Tuesday. It's a nice reward for their service in a match we all know we're going to lose no matter who we pick. But I also think we should play Horgan and McCleary who will surely relish the opportunity to pit themselves against international defenders and show what they can still do. Personally I'd pick Stockdale, McCarthy, Tafazolli, Stewart, JJ, Obita, Bloomfield, Scowen, McCleary, Horgan, Akinfenwa.
@ReturnToSenda said:
Out of interest, what do people think of the League Cup as a competition in general? I'm writing a piece on how to improve/revamp it at the moment. Personally I think it's on its last legs without a few changes.
The Premier League clubs should be kicked out. After all, it is, and always has been, the Football League Cup. They should have been given the boot in 1992.
Having said that, will be up in Manchester with everyone else on Tuesday ?
@ReturnToSenda said:
Out of interest, what do people think of the League Cup as a competition in general? I'm writing a piece on how to improve/revamp it at the moment. Personally I think it's on its last legs without a few changes.
The Premier League clubs should be kicked out. After all, it is, and always has been, the Football League Cup. They should have been given the boot in 1992.
Having said that, will be up in Manchester with everyone else on Tuesday ?
Agree with this. Kick out prem teams and scrap the Tinpot EFL trophy (Papa Johns).
If you kick the premier league teams out, you absolutely kill the league cup in one fell stroke.
Championship teams don't excite people as a draw.
Difficult to really know what to do with the cups in general though. When you see midtable premier teams rotating heavily who won't get relegated, but won't come top 6, it is galling to see them not going all in to win a cup.
I suppose like all things, money is the only thing they can do. Flood money into the cups, so they're more attractive to teams.
As for the line-up midweek, we have to give it a go with as strong a line-up as possible.
City have Chelsea at the weekend, so even with a draw yesterday, surely don't go too strong.
Finishing bottom of the Premier League is worth about 100x as much as winning the League Cup purely in terms of £. There are obvious reasons for that, but it's not exactly hard to see why teams aren't that arsed about it.
Not sure booting Prem teams out would help the League Cup, you're likely to end up with the Championship teams at both sharp ends prioritizing the league anyway and reduced prize money due to lower receipts and less sponsorship pound.
I'd go pretty full strength against City personally, the players will want to play up there and the one small advantage we'd have is as a unified in-form team against a bunch of guys who don't play together regularly.
Not sure us getting hammered does much for the kids.
Football supporters are a weird bunch. A couple of thousand people perhaps will travel four hours or so each way on a weekday to watch a football match between what they expect to be 1st team squad players from Wycombe and kids they have never heard of wearing Man City shirts in a competition few care much about.
I have been in the kill the League Cup camp for a while now. I understand the point of the FA and Papa John’s cups. I don’t see the point of the League Cup one.
@DevC said:
Football supporters are a weird bunch. A couple of thousand people perhaps will travel four hours or so each way on a weekday to watch a football match between what they expect to be 1st team squad players from Wycombe and kids they have never heard of wearing Man City shirts in a competition few care much about.
I have been in the kill the League Cup camp for a while now. I understand the point of the FA and Papa John’s cups. I don’t see the point of the League Cup one.
I think that’s a bit of a miserable take.
It’s an opportunity to see our club go up against one of the giants of world football on their own patch.
@DevC said:
Football supporters are a weird bunch. A couple of thousand people perhaps will travel four hours or so each way on a weekday to watch a football match between what they expect to be 1st team squad players from Wycombe and kids they have never heard of wearing Man City shirts in a competition few care much about.
I have been in the kill the League Cup camp for a while now. I understand the point of the FA and Papa John’s cups. I don’t see the point of the League Cup one.
With all due respect, and without any accusation that i'm "playing the man, not the ball", perhaps you're not the best person to appreciate what being a regular supporter is like?!
I would expect the players who got us to the third round to make up the team. Plus McCleary started the last Papa John's game. Man City haven't lost a game in this cup for years so no chance they are underestimating us.
Not getting drawn in to @DevC 's trolling on this post. Those who want to support their club in person on Tuesday don't deserve to be called weird.
If you kick the Prem clubs out you're going to have a much more varied and interesting set of teams at Wembley and lifting the trophy. League One teams could actually seriously dream about upsetting the odds and winning it.
Trouble is Vincey we are not really going up against one of the giants of world football. We are going up against their reserve/youth team. I suspect the team they put out may not be that different to the team they put out in the Papa John’s. Yet 2000 travel to Manchester, more than would turn out for a Papa John’s home game. Don’t get me wrong I am not in any way criticizing those that go. I hope you have a great night. It’s just odd what football fans will do and put up with.
I will certainly be there on Tuesday (God willing), however, I feel we should use our wider squad.
It would be a sad outcome if as a result of chasing cup glory we pick up a few key injuries and fall away in our key goal to achieve promotion.
@DevC said:
Football supporters are a weird bunch. A couple of thousand people perhaps will travel four hours or so each way on a weekday to watch a football match between what they expect to be 1st team squad players from Wycombe and kids they have never heard of wearing Man City shirts in a competition few care much about.
I have been in the kill the League Cup camp for a while now. I understand the point of the FA and Papa John’s cups. I don’t see the point of the League Cup one.
If you do your research you will see that a good few first teamers have made the squads (and either started or come on) at this stage of the competition for City in recent years. I'd say if a football supporter can't get excited about seeing Man City with their current manager and squad then what can they get excited about? I'm bringing a mate and he supports neither City or Wycombe. It's an exciting game for the neutral.
@DevC said:
Trouble is Vincey we are not really going up against one of the giants of world football. We are going up against their reserve/youth team. I suspect the team they put out may not be that different to the team they put out in the Papa John’s. Yet 2000 travel to Manchester, more than would turn out for a Papa John’s home game. Don’t get me wrong I am not in any way criticizing those that go. I hope you have a great night. It’s just odd what football fans will do and put up with.
It’s still Manchester City, not Manchester City under 23 or whatever competes in the pizza cup.
@Right_in_the_Middle said:
I would expect the players who got us to the third round to make up the team. Plus McCleary started the last Papa John's game.** Man City haven't lost a game in this cup for years so no chance they are underestimating us. **
Not getting drawn in to @DevC 's trolling on this post. Those who want to support their club in person on Tuesday don't deserve to be called weird.
I don't see the link between these two things.
They frequently win this cup as they often have 40-50m players on the bench and have the most costly squad in history.
Comments
Oh yeh. ??
Listening to GA's post match interview, he seemed indicate that MK away next Saturday was very much priority, so I suspect the starting XI will be rotated. Not really worth risking key players like McCleary in a game like this when it's possible he'd have a negligible impact anyway. Best to save him for the more important matches to come.
It’s a real problem. Rotate in a lot of kids and get slaughtered it damages them. Play key first team players and risk a crap result v They Who Shall Not Be Named.
McCarthy in, Wheeler in, Gape maybe, plus the subs who came on yesterday
Out of interest, what do people think of the League Cup as a competition in general? I'm writing a piece on how to improve/revamp it at the moment. Personally I think it's on its last legs without a few changes.
I'd like to see Bayo and Bloomfield start on Tuesday. It's a nice reward for their service in a match we all know we're going to lose no matter who we pick. But I also think we should play Horgan and McCleary who will surely relish the opportunity to pit themselves against international defenders and show what they can still do. Personally I'd pick Stockdale, McCarthy, Tafazolli, Stewart, JJ, Obita, Bloomfield, Scowen, McCleary, Horgan, Akinfenwa.
The Premier League clubs should be kicked out. After all, it is, and always has been, the Football League Cup. They should have been given the boot in 1992.
Having said that, will be up in Manchester with everyone else on Tuesday ?
Agree with this. Kick out prem teams and scrap the Tinpot EFL trophy (Papa Johns).
If you kick the premier league teams out, you absolutely kill the league cup in one fell stroke.
Championship teams don't excite people as a draw.
Difficult to really know what to do with the cups in general though. When you see midtable premier teams rotating heavily who won't get relegated, but won't come top 6, it is galling to see them not going all in to win a cup.
I suppose like all things, money is the only thing they can do. Flood money into the cups, so they're more attractive to teams.
As for the line-up midweek, we have to give it a go with as strong a line-up as possible.
City have Chelsea at the weekend, so even with a draw yesterday, surely don't go too strong.
Quite right @Malone, it’s nonsense to think that Saturday’s humdrum league game is more important.
Football is about glory, let’s go an get some.
Finishing bottom of the Premier League is worth about 100x as much as winning the League Cup purely in terms of £. There are obvious reasons for that, but it's not exactly hard to see why teams aren't that arsed about it.
Not sure booting Prem teams out would help the League Cup, you're likely to end up with the Championship teams at both sharp ends prioritizing the league anyway and reduced prize money due to lower receipts and less sponsorship pound.
I'd go pretty full strength against City personally, the players will want to play up there and the one small advantage we'd have is as a unified in-form team against a bunch of guys who don't play together regularly.
Not sure us getting hammered does much for the kids.
Strongest team available should play Tuesday. Strong arguments for McCarthy to return and to get Wheeler in somewhere.
Obviously extremely unlikely that we will win but we shouldn’t let this opportunity pass us by as they rarely come about.
Hopefully Pep totally underestimates us, plays one too many of the younguns, and the notoriously quiet/empty Etihad works in our favour.
Football supporters are a weird bunch. A couple of thousand people perhaps will travel four hours or so each way on a weekday to watch a football match between what they expect to be 1st team squad players from Wycombe and kids they have never heard of wearing Man City shirts in a competition few care much about.
I have been in the kill the League Cup camp for a while now. I understand the point of the FA and Papa John’s cups. I don’t see the point of the League Cup one.
I think that’s a bit of a miserable take.
It’s an opportunity to see our club go up against one of the giants of world football on their own patch.
These opportunities don’t come around often.
With all due respect, and without any accusation that i'm "playing the man, not the ball", perhaps you're not the best person to appreciate what being a regular supporter is like?!
I would expect the players who got us to the third round to make up the team. Plus McCleary started the last Papa John's game. Man City haven't lost a game in this cup for years so no chance they are underestimating us.
Not getting drawn in to @DevC 's trolling on this post. Those who want to support their club in person on Tuesday don't deserve to be called weird.
If you kick the Prem clubs out you're going to have a much more varied and interesting set of teams at Wembley and lifting the trophy. League One teams could actually seriously dream about upsetting the odds and winning it.
Trouble is Vincey we are not really going up against one of the giants of world football. We are going up against their reserve/youth team. I suspect the team they put out may not be that different to the team they put out in the Papa John’s. Yet 2000 travel to Manchester, more than would turn out for a Papa John’s home game. Don’t get me wrong I am not in any way criticizing those that go. I hope you have a great night. It’s just odd what football fans will do and put up with.
I will certainly be there on Tuesday (God willing), however, I feel we should use our wider squad.
It would be a sad outcome if as a result of chasing cup glory we pick up a few key injuries and fall away in our key goal to achieve promotion.
If you do your research you will see that a good few first teamers have made the squads (and either started or come on) at this stage of the competition for City in recent years. I'd say if a football supporter can't get excited about seeing Man City with their current manager and squad then what can they get excited about? I'm bringing a mate and he supports neither City or Wycombe. It's an exciting game for the neutral.
It’s still Manchester City, not Manchester City under 23 or whatever competes in the pizza cup.
They will play 5/6 first team regulars
It will be interesting to see if Luke Bolton plays for City. I hope he does.
Man City reserves are still full of internationals and would probably still be a decent lower Premier league team
I don't see the link between these two things.
They frequently win this cup as they often have 40-50m players on the bench and have the most costly squad in history.
To be fair far from impossible that Foden and De Bruyne may start along with Lavia,Mbete and Wilson-Esbrand. I hope you all enjoy the game.
Never seen the point in resting players myself unless they are carrying a knock. Success breeds success. And as @floyd says, football is about glory
City's starting 11 v Oxford in Round 3 in 2018/19 (last time they played a L1/L2 team this early in the competition):
Muric
Danilo
Kompany
Stones
Otamendi
Zinchenko
David Silva
Foden
Diaz
Mahrez
Jesus
Gundogan and Sterling came off the bench.
Jesus! indeed.